December 27, 2012

Russian environmental activist seeks asylum in Estonia

TALLINN - Environmental activist Suren Gazaryan, who fears criminal prosecution in Russia, has asked for political asylum in Estonia, Eesti Television (ETV) reported on Thursday.

Gazaryan told ETV that he filed an asylum request two weeks ago with the migration service. However, the Estonian authorities refused to discuss the request with RIA Novosti, citing a law that prohibits the disclosure of the personal information of asylum seekers in the country.

It was previously reported that a criminal case was initiated against Gazaryan, a well known environmental activist in the Krasnodar Territory. He faces punishment for allegedly issuing murder threats while pleading innocent.

Gazaryan said that on August 2 he had an argument with the security guards of a private facility. After this, according to Gazaryan, one of the guards reported him to the police on threatening to murder him.

Gazaryan already has one three-year suspended sentence for defacing the fence around the country house of Krasnodar Territory Governor Alexander Tkachyov. Along with another environmental activist Gazaryan said that the forest plot had been illegally taken possession of and that pines on the Red Data List had been cut down in order to construct the house.

The press service of the region's administration said that the house and the plot of land do not belong to the governor.